The Balance of Power

The Journey So Far

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SEP/16

Characters meet on the road to phandalin, where they come across a broken wagon and are attacked by goblins. Following a trail to a cave, they investigate, eradicate the goblins and the bugbear leader, and rescue Sildar Hallwinter. Arriving at Phandalin, they scout the city to find that there is a band of ruffians terrorizing the town. They eventually investigate below the ruined manor to find it is the base of the ruffians. They destroy Glass Staff, who it turns out was the missing person Sildar was sent to find. They also find a prisoner (Seeth) in the basement. The characters look near Wyvern Tor, where a group of orcs has been scouted. They meet an assassin outside (Deeloy) and attack the inhabitants. Another assassin (Deeloy's gf) has been leading the orcs and he is forced to kill her, making him very sad. The assassin hits Bruce in the hand with a poison dagger and Seeth lops off his arm to save his life. Later, Deeloy cries in some bushes and Bruce decides he's done with this bullshit. Padma Linevere arrives with Tyrone. Aileigh arrives.

Characters encountered Haman Kost, a necromancer who was hanging around Old Owl Well with a large cohort of zombies. After some discussion, they left him in peace, satisfied that he wasn’t up to anything particularly nefarious. After this, Riswinn decided she had had enough of the party’s lagging and left to go free her cousin by herself. Soon after, the party were met by a half-elven fighter of the Lord’s Alliance (Padma Linevere), who delivered a letter from Rigar, which invited the party to see him in Waterdeep after they had dealt with the Black Spider. Additionally, Padma had introduced Tyrone, a human monk to the party. The party encountered the banshee near Conyberry, where they successfully completed Sister Garael’s quest. On the way out of the forest, they were attacked by an Ogre, who was quickly dispatched and finished by a flaming kick from Tyrone. The party made their way back to Phandalin, where they wrapped up a number of quests and Padma made her leave back to Waterdeep. They plan to leave for Thundertree soon.

The party entered Thundertree, where they initially fought some zombies in a decrepit tavern. Upon making this noise, they were beaconed by a druid (Reidoth, human) to follow him to his house on the south end of the town. There they met his guest (Amafrey, a half-elven dragon hunter ranger) and he explained the situation to them. There is a green dragon in residence in the tower in town and he wants the party to run it off. He offers to lead them to Wave Echo Cave if they do. After a tangle with some spiders, they approach the tower, where the dragon greets them and invites them inside. After some coaxing, all but Amafrey acquiesce and enter. Upon entering, he speaks about his sister who has spies all around while moving around the tower animatedly. In reality, he was positioning himself most advantageously in order to hit all members with his poison breath weapon, which he did without warning. Failing their saving throws, both Aileigh and Deeloy were dropped to 0HP. Seeth and Tyrone were in bad shape, and did minor damage to the dragon. The dragon dropped Tyrone on his first turn of combat, despite poor initiative. Amafrey, meanwhile, was doing massive damage through the window. Luckily, Seeth fed Aileigh a healing potion, which revived her in time for her turn to heal Deeloy. Seeing that the battle had turned, Venomfang picked up Tyrone and began to fly away, but dropped him before he could clear the tower. At this point, he has flown toward the northeast, into the Neverwinter Wood, and is out of sight.

After being nearly exterminated by the green dragon, the party immediately found themselves confronted by members of the dragon cult, furious at their attack. Making quick work of the cultists, the party explored some more of Thundertree, pillaging as they went. The party then confronted Reidoth about possible collusion with the dragon, to which he questioned why they believed a green dragon in the first place. Placated, the party slept and left in the morning for Cragmaw Castle with Reidoth. Amafrey left in search of the dragon. The party entered the Neverwinter wood, avoiding many fearsome creatures with Reidoth’s help. They did run into two dryads that took issue with Seeth’s axe, but made quick work of them. Upon approaching the castle, the party rested and prepared for their assault.

Deeloy searched for an entrance to the castle and found a side door. Picking the iron gate, the party made its way into the castle and were noticed by a large group of goblins in the dining hall. Casting burning hands and setting the furniture on fire, Aileigh killed a number of goblins. Deeloy tried to vault over the table, but failed miserably and landing prone on the burning table. Meanwhile, Seeth double crit failed on casting a ranged fire spell and managed to cast fireball on himself, doing massive damage to everyone in the room. The party killed some other goblins, then made their way further into the castle. There, they found petrified goblins and some pissed, and very alive, hobgoblins. Searching in further, they came across a corpse and were noticed by King Grol himself and his direwolf Snarl. After a tough battle, they found that the corpse was Riswinn, who had foolishly tried to rescue her cousin Gundren Rockseeker. They found evidence that Gundren had been brought to the Black Spider. After looting the king’s room, the party became interested in a locked door. Upon opening it, Seeth ran in and came face-to-face with a Basilisk. His constitution wasn’t up to the task and he became stone. By not looking at the creature, the rest of the party were able to destroy it. With Reidoth’s help, they attempted to pull out the creatures stomach to undo the petrification, but their first attempt failed when they tested it on Seeth’s foot and the foot began to slough away. The second attempt was successful, but painful, considering the powerful acid at work. Seeth’s foot also appears to be permanently maimed, about which he is understandably upset. After this tough experience, the party decided to leave the castle.

Camping some distance from the castle, the party awoke to a green dragon head poking out from the far side of the clearing. It turns out that Venomfang had been following them; he very courteously thanked them for removing the basilisk and most of the denizens of such an excellent lair as the castle. Annoyed, the party made it’s way out of the forest and back toward Phandalin. Coming up on the city, they found it under attack by goblins and bugbears. After a fight to save the town, the players were thanked by the denizens of the town and Deeloy even did some flirting with Sister Garael. Since the inn had burned to the ground, they spent the night in Daran Edermath’s barn. In a surprise turn of events, Sister Garael woke Deeloy up for some… activities. Freshly ready for more adventure in the morning, they set off for Wave Echo Cave. Entering a craggy section of the country, they eventually came upon a crevasse that needed to be passed, which was passes successfully by everyone but Reidoth, who lost hold of the rope and plummeted to his death. Retrieving his body from the bottom, the party said some words for the druid and buried him. Moving further toward the cave, they entered a gorge with sheer walls, where they encountered an animated suit of armor. Fighting tenaciously against the surprisingly difficult opponent, they eventually prevailed and Seeth placed the armor aside for future use. Finding the entrance to the cave, they made camp nearby to attack in the morning.

Finally entering Wave Echo Cave, they found the body of a dwarf, months dead, in the entrance cavern. Echoes of rushing water reverberated through the dark passages, lending an eerie atmosphere. They descended to the main level of the cave and quickly found it to be labyrinthine. Soon they came upon an intersection with the bones of many humanoids: humans, dwarves, and orcs; evidence of the battle that ended the industry of the cave. They entered another room where several skeletons animated and tried to attack, but Deeloy and Tyrone rolled through the room like a violent wave. Further on in the passageway, the party was surprised by an attack of cave eels. They were mostly an annoyance to all but Seeth, who had his glass staff stolen and went into a narrow hole face first to retrieve it. After some finagling, he was able to retrieve it, but was left angry and frustrated. The next room was filled with large mushrooms glowing a deep green. Feeling sure of their safety, Deeloy entered and was quickly hit in the face with a cloud of spores. Wary of further investigation of the room, the party sought a different route. On that other path, they came across a vary large and dark banquet hall, which after some scouting, was shown to contain a number of ghouls.

The party was able to sneak past the ghouls in the far room. Deeloy scouted ahead and found a room containing a smelting furnace, several zombified dwarves, and a small floating skull, glowing with a green flame. The skull noticed Deeloy and warned him in a high-pitched voice to leave the room at once. Taking the hint, Deeloy high-tailed it out of the room. In the previous room, the party set up a trap for the ghouls on the other side of the room. As they drew the ghouls’ attention with a fire arrow, the party attacked at a distance and dropped several of the enemies, causing some to stop and feast on their comrades. Eventually, a couple of the ghouls reached the stairs, where they were engulfed by flame from Seeth’s hand and the oil-soaked stairs. Backtracking and moving into an labyrinthine section of the cave, they were stalked by a large yellow jelly, which they effectively kited while Aileigh spammed Sacred Flame until it fried into oblivion. They moved into a larger cavern with an underground lake that gave off a creepy and watchful vibe. One of the party noticed a glint of metal under the water in the center of the lake, which upon closer inspection appeared to be a half-buried chest. With his totally balanced monk powers, Tyrone turned the local water into ice and split it, after which Deeloy ran in to grab the contents of the now ripped-open chest. What he did not expect was for a Water Weird to reach over the ice and grapple him. Narrowly escaping the grasp, Deeloy grabbed the oilcloth bundle in the chest and ran for the shore. Thinking he was safe, he was once again pummeled and grabbed by the Weird and dragged toward the water. The group managed to grab him and run up some stairs, but were immediately surprised when bugbears burst from an adjacent room. Caught on two sides, the group fought mightily, especially helped by Aileigh’s ability to channel the power of her god to attack the goblinoids approaching the door. Finishing the foes off and moving further into the dungeon, the group came across three more bugbears and a drow in a cavern to one side and a large temple door to another side. Seeing the party, the drow fled further into the cavern

Woke up to find new powers, gathered a cart and horses in Phandalin, started on high road south, encountered a monstrous Bruce and killed him

Encountered Eilonna Silverkin, who gave a region map, fought manticores who were attacking a gnomish merchant, found a burning farm and rescued residents from orcs. Headed to Dellmon ranch to help local farmers against orc incursions.

Next Two Sessions: successfully repelled a large orc attack against the Dellmon Ranch

The company left Dellmon ranch for Red Larch under escort of a contingent of Elves from the deep wood. They arrived and checked into the Swinging Sword Inn, after which they went to the inn and heard about more strange events. During the night, Deeloy awakes to a ghost haunting him in his hotel room.

18 Kythorne

After unsuccessfully ignoring the ghost, who refers to him as “____” and is alternatively pissed/into him. After screaming outside, the hotel is roused and the innkeeper tells them that this ghost has been seen before, but not in years, and appears to be because Deeloy is a woodelf. The ghost becons them toward the old quarry, where she attacks the party and temporarily possesses Seeth, but it eventually defeated. The next day, the party does some shopping and Aileigh talks to Old Gretchen, who used to be friends with Elka the ghost. The ghost turned out to have fallen in love with a woodelf, and when he left her, she drowned herself in the lake. Old Gretchen was also apparently still in contact with the ghost, and the party leaves the old woman in hope of seeing her friend that day.

The group makes their way through the Mere of Dead Men without much event, besides a three-way battle with highwaymen and a troll.

The group crossed the Impossible Path, seeing the smoking sea and the ocean far below on either side. Halfway across, they were attacked by a wyvern. One horse was lost, and they seemed doomed, but were saved by a large silver dragon. Landing, the dragon polymorphed back into the old woman they saw before, asking them some more questions about what they were doing and who they were before leaving suddenly.

The party stopped at the town of Misty Cove, the whole area of which is covered by a thin fog limiting visibility. They get some weird vibes, but meet a nice Halfling family at the inn. Late at night, they hear a trememdous bellowing sound, but go back to sleep. In the morning, they find that the Halfling family has disappeared. They track the cart to a discarded pile of such carts, and then see townfolk staring into the sea. After investigating a lighthouse, they are attacked by the attendant, who they incapacitate. A spyglass in the top magically penetrates fog, and they see an island offshore. They make their way to the island over some bullshit monk ice bridge, avoiding the sea serpents in the water. After a couple puzzles, they make their way into the cave. Hearing the booming sound and screaming, they see lots of fish people and humans taking part in an apparent ritual. They then meet a merfolk Aenon, who is scouting the cave for a Kuo Toa infestation. He leads them though underwater caves to other chambers where they defeat the fish people and their leader. Entering the main temple, they see a tremendous tunnel to the outside and a sacrifice altar with blood spatter. They enter the human section of the temple, but the residents hear clear the room before they find them. They do, however, confront the jailor and free Cori, the only remaining member of the Halfling family. They find the human cult members in the sacrifice room and fight them from both sides, seeing the battle turn, the leader bangs the gong and summons the Shipbreaker Sea Serpent, who shows up and promptly eats the cult leader. Seeth is nearly killed by a water elemental, but they party manages to escape. They explore the remaining cave, where a very ugly pregnant woman is relaxing. They find her very unsettling and suspicious, so after casting dispel magic, the illusion falls away to show a horrible sea hag. They dispatch her quickly, then hear a sound in her belly. Performing an emergency cesarean section, Deloy saves the young baby Harmut, who was incubating to become another hag. The party leaves the cave, only to find the shipbreaker destroying the town. They leave rather quickly.

Going down the high road, after two days they find a section of land that appears to be transported directly from the desert. After investigating, they are attacked by a giant scorpion.

Next day (27th Kythorn) they find a group of refugees fleeing in the face of an apparent horde coming out of the waste.

The following day as they approach Holbeck, they are met by Padma Linevere and Zangold Gladdenstone, who tell them waterdeep is under siege. They approach Holbeck to find that Fire Giants have destroyed the Veinway Rail System. Zangold then leads them several miles away to a section of obscure woods. In an unremarkable rock face, he knocks peculiarly, a squeaking is heard and he beckons the party follow him as he walks directly into the rock face. The party enters to find that they have been portalled to Skullport.